Brady Hoke

Just noticed that since Hoke successfully convinced Russell Bellomy to go blue, that Scout is now using my suggestion of calling it Hokus Pokus! LOL!

I guess it wasn't a bad idea after all.

I was listening to The Friday Big Show with Jim and Al on WTKA yesterday. Near the end of the show they were talking about Brady Hoke going up against San Diego State later this year. This led to a brief conversation about coaches going up against their former team.

Jim Stark mentioned that he thought one of the great ironies of coaching was when Central Michigan visited Michigan Stadium and former CMU head coach Herb Deromedi, who according to Stark "was the assistant coach at Michigan the last two years of his career," was on the sideline in his Michigan blue going up against his former team.

Does anybody actually remember Herb Deromedi doing any coaching for Michigan?

Not that it's the be-all and end-all, but Deromedi's Wikipedia page does not have Michigan on his coaching record. It lists that he was an assistant at CMU from '67 to '77 and HC from '78 -'93. It says that he was also the AD for CMU from '94 to '06. Michigan and CMU have only played three times in their history -- 1931, 2003, and 2006. He was still employed by CMU in 2003, so if this actually occurred, it would have had to have happened during the 2006 season, maybe after he retired as CMU's AD?

A quick check of the records on U-M's Bentley Historical Library website shows no record of Deromedi as a coach on either the 2006 or 2007 team. I suppose, however, that it's possible Deromedi served as a volunteer assistant on those teams -- maybe as a favor to Lloyd Carr and Mike DeBord, with whom I believe he was good friends.  If that's the case, then maybe that's why he is not listed anywhere as an official U-M coach.

I don't know myself, so I'm wondering if anyone can confirm the plausibility of Mr. Stark's story, or if he is just, as former WTKA host Doug Karsch likes to say, full of poi.

• Offensively - OL's are needed
• Defensively - DL and LB
• Ultimately, looking for guys who will understand the value of a degree and play michigan football.

He didn't mention anything about touching kids this time.

There are quotes aplenty in here.  Commence reading between the lines:

http://detnews.com/article/20110122/SPORTS0202/101220321/High-school-coa...

Comments:

* Goricki has been Sparty-friendly in past articles.  Did he ignore RichRod-friendly coaches here?  Who knows?
* The first guy quoted is Patrick Threet of St. Clair Shores Lakeview.  Steven's brother?  :)  He doesn't appear to be a RichRod fan.  Samples:

"... you can definitely feel there's a leadership vibe there (with Hoke) that will relate to the hard-working people of Michigan ..." (Hopelessly vague ...)

"When you look at Michigan State, they won the state in recruiting and I think it shows."  (Whatever ...)

"There was a little bit of arrogance (with Rodriguez)."

* Next up, the somewhat famous John Herrington of Farmington Hills Harrison:

"I thought Rodriguez was a very good coach, an offensive genius. I think it will be different where Brady will recruit Michigan harder and not just go to Florida and California (like Rodriguez) ..." (I find this much more interesting, because Herrington's opinions probably carry some weight.  Even he seems to believe that RichRod didn't spend enough time in Michigan.)

* How does everyone feel about Hoke downshifting from a BlackBerry to a "regular" cell phone?  Offhand I can't imagine why someone would voluntarily trade down in that area, but maybe that's just me.  More important, what does it say about his modernity?  Coaches are still allowed to text these days, right?  (I'm assuming he wouldn't be enthusiastic about texting with only number keys.)  Does he risk being perceived as out-of-touch by players?  I could see where some people, like Coach Threet, could find the idea appealing.

Just a point of discussion I was wondering about...

What does everybody think Hoke will/should do with the new slogans and signs that were put up during the Rich Rodriguez era?  Will "Hard Edge" stay?  What about "Hold the Rope?"  I think Barwis had another one put up, too, but I can't remember or find a reference to it.  Will Hoke keep them, or go his own way?

Thoughts?